The ‘double-edged sword’ of a sessional academic career

ABSTRACT

There have been widespread changes to working arrangements and employment relationships, including significant decreases in continuing/full-time employment contracts. This trend is particularly notable in academia, with more universities relying on the expertise of sessional, teaching-focused academics. This qualitative study extends understanding of this important group of professionals, identifying sessional work as a ‘double-edged sword’ and suggesting a typology of sessional academic careers to be tested in future research. It reports on the diversity among sessional academics, some enjoying the autonomy and flexibility of this working arrangement, others seeking more job security and greater alignment with continuing employment. It also identifies synergies and contradictions between sessional academic careers and key themes in the contemporary careers literature.     

Developmental Differences in Decoding the Meanings of the Appraisal Actions of Teachers

Teachers convey evaluations through such "appraisal actions" as ability versus effort attributions for children's performance, spontaneous displays of warmth versus matter-of-fact acceptance, and attention versus inattention. Some appraisal actions (e.g., ability-effort) require an understanding of multiplicative relations to arrive at an "adult" interpretation. Others (e.g., attention-inattention) do not. First through sixth graders watched videotaped scenes in which teachers attributed one child's performance to ability but chided another for lack of effort even though he had given an equivalent performance, hugged one child but not another for equivalent performance, and paid attention to one child's oral report but not another's. Younger students (ages 5-9 to 7-10) rated the ability-attributed and hugged children as smarter; older students (ages 9-9 to 11-10) rated the effort-attributed and unhugged children as smarter. In contrast, no age differences were found in decoding attention versus inattention. The results suggest that younger children use a different strategy in decoding the meanings of complex appraisal actions.     

Memory Characteristics Of Two Dimensional Movement Information

Abstract

Two experiments examined the reproduction accuracy and retention characteristics of two-dimensional movement information. Distance, location, and combined location plus distance groups were examined under three retention intervals. The results of both experiments generally revealed that distance cues were maintained over a 15-second rest interval and subject to decay when interpolated activity was introduced. In contrast, recall accuracy for both the location group and the location plus distance group decayed during the rest interval. Following the presentation of interpolated activity, the location group exhibited no further decrement while the location plus distance group continued to demonstrate a decay in accuracy. These results imply a differential access to central processing for the two sources of movement information. That is, contrary to the results of previous studies utilizing one-dimensional tasks, two-dimensional distance cues appear to be centrally processed while location cues are not. Thus, when distance and location information is available, only the distance information appears to have access to central processing. Apparently, distance cues are more readily rehearsable in a two-dimensional task. It might be argued that distance information, with such additional cues as movement rate, timing, etc., is more appropriate for two-dimensional tasks while location information is relied on in one-dimensional tasks.     

Impact of Accommodation Strategies on English Language Learners' Test Performance

How can we make effective accommodations for nonnative English speakers taking mathematics measures? What kinds of accommodations are useful and what kinds are not? Where does this research need to go in the future?     

Disqualified in the human race: a close reading of the autobiographies of individuals identified as autistic

Much can be learned about the experience of autism by listening to the voices of individuals so labelled. They describe their understanding of competence, living in a culture where autism is considered deviant, deficient and outside the range of ‘normal’ human experience. This paper utilises autobiographical accounts written by individuals who identify as autistic as a source of qualitative research data and specifically explores the ways in which these texts address issues of competence. Using narrative inquiry, it explores how individuals with autism, both adults and adolescents, describe their own notions of competence and, further, the instructional practices that support their ability to demonstrate their competence.     

Teacher Implementation and the Impact of Game-Based Science Curriculum Materials

Research-based digital games hold great potential to be effective tools in supporting next-generation science learning. However, as with all instructional materials, teachers significantly influence their implementation and contribute to their effectiveness. To more fully understand the contributions and challenges of teacher implementation of digital games, we studied the replacement of existing high school biology genetics lessons over a 3- to 6-week period with Geniverse, an immersive, game-like learning environment designed to be used in classrooms. The Geniverse materials infuse virtual experimentation in genetics with a narrative of a quest to heal a genetic disease; incorporate the topics of meiosis and protein synthesis with inheritance; and include the science practices of explanation and argumentation. The research design involved a quasi-experiment with 48 high school teachers and about 2000 students, student science content knowledge and argumentation outcome measures, and analysis using hierarchical linear modeling. Results indicate that when Geniverse was implemented as the designers intended, student learning of genetics content was significantly greater than in the comparison, business-as-usual group. However, a wide range of levels of Geniverse implementation resulted in no significant difference between the groups as a whole. Students’ abilities to engage in scientific explanation and argumentation were greater in the Geniverse group, but these differences were not statistically significant. Observation, survey, and interview data indicate a range of barriers to implementation and teacher instructional decisions that may have influenced student outcomes. Implications for the role of the teacher in the implementation of game-based instructional materials are discussed.